Chapter Seventy-Three: Grazing (Part 2)

Eight agricultural reclamation divisions implemented military cantonment in the Hetao area, half civilian and half army, and when the war was fought, they could pull up a tuntian army of at least 50,000 people, which was also one of the purposes of Lü Bu's encouragement of military cantonment. As for the local Southern Huns, they were willing to stay in Tuntian and move away if they were unwilling.

Because the Hetao area had been abandoned for a long time, the Qin Canal, Han Canal, Guanglu Canal, and Hanyan Canal that had been built before were either in disrepair or remote, so according to Fu Zhu's suggestion, Lü Bu sent all the men among the Xianbei slaves who had not been distributed to the Hetao area to build water conservancy and ditches, and recruited those who lacked manpower from the civilians in the military camp.

The construction of the ditch was in charge of Jia Kui, who had previous experience in building water conservancy, according to the suggestion of Fu Zhi.

The women among the Xianbei slaves, who have no reward, cannot be idle, can help herd, or learn to weave, farm, raise silkworms, etc., in short, in Lu Bu's words, every slave needs labor in exchange for food, and we do not raise idlers.

Lü Bu appointed Fu Zhi as the head of the military tun and the governor of Shuofang County, and unified the management of the military and political affairs of the tuntian, with Jia Kui and Wen Hui assisting him. So far, the work of Tuntian has been completed.

Next is the collective grazing that Lu Bu had been planning at the beginning, and the difficulty of this work is greater than that of Tuntian. After all, Tuntian is in the rear, which is relatively safe, and grazing is directly at the border of each county, or even deep into the grassland, which is north of the Great Wall, and there is no barrier of the Great Wall, directly bordering all ethnic groups in the grassland.

In the end, only 2,000 people chose to graze en masse, exchanging their military exploits for cattle, sheep, horses, male and female slaves, and the military gave them food and tents and other necessities.

More people still choose to stay in the army, most of this part is not high enough military merits, even if they go to grazing, there are not many cattle, sheep, horses and slaves, it is better to stay in the army, continue to accumulate military merits, and then exchange them when they make more military merits in the future, which is more appropriate.

The two thousand people who chose to graze en masse, Lu Bu turned them into a herding cavalry brigade, two regiments, each regiment of 1,000 people, each battalion of more than 300 people, and each company of more than 100 people.

Originally, it was planned to establish settlements in platoons, but because the number of Wuhuan and Xiongnu people who chose to graze with the Han army was not as large as expected, even if some people were recruited from the tribes of the Southern Xiongnu, they could only make up each Han army soldier to lead five Xiongnu servants.

If it is still based on platoons, a settlement has a small number of people and a somewhat weak strength, and in the end, it is still a company to establish a settlement and divide the scope of pastures.

At the same time, some Han civilians, who do not like farming, or broken horse households and military households, also choose to participate in collective grazing, and they all sign documents and contracts with the military.

They lease cattle, sheep, horses, tents, grain, etc. from the military, and when they can afford to pay back, they can hand over their livestock, furs, and even minerals, and they can accumulate points, which can be used to buy things or pay taxes, of course, in the first year they are exempt from taxes.

Naturally, the grazing troops should also be semi-militarized, and there will be regular military training every winter and summer, so that in the future, when necessary, a large army of cavalry can be raised.

More than 6,000 families of civilians who signed up to participate in collective grazing were divided equally among the companies.

The people who choose to graze are significantly less than those who can graze, mainly because, first, the Han people originally farmed more and could graze less; Second, grazing on the grasslands is risky, and there is a risk of being attacked by the grassland peoples.

Strengthening security measures and gathering intelligence in advance was Lü Bu's request to protect all nomadic Han Chinese, and the company settlements must be within the sight of the beacon signal, and if they are too far away, they must also set up a manned beacon tower in the middle.

All regiments and battalions, down to the company, should keep in touch with their superiors and subordinates, and the higher-level units should send personnel to the subordinate units every day to inspect and confirm safety, and the latest should not exceed three days. The regimental headquarters raises carrier pigeons, maintains daily contact and information transmission with the brigade headquarters and the rear.

In addition, Lü Bu also decided that the cavalry division and the Xiongnu servant army would conduct actual combat drills with brigades as units from time to time, and engage various tribes in the steppe, so as to not only train troops but also deter the enemy.

The general head of the grazing troops, Lu Bu finally chose Fang Yue, Fang Yue is more stable and has rich experience, which is enough to be competent, Cao He and Zhang Yang are the deputy generals, assisting Fang Yue.

After the two main tasks of tuntian and grazing were arranged, Lü Bu was finally able to shift his focus to the reorganization of the troops. Jia Xu and Gao Shun had already compiled the specific organization of each unit and the appointment of commanders at all levels into documents and sent them to Lu Bu for approval.

The first was the newly established Honorary First Division, whose commander was concurrently served by Gao Shun and had two infantry brigades under its command. The brigade commander of the 1st Guards Infantry Brigade was Cheng Lian, who was wounded in a bloody battle in the Battle of Liangcheng, and one of his ears was shot off by the bow and arrow of the Xianbei people.

The brigade commander of the 2nd Guards Infantry Brigade was Guan Hai, he was not injured, and it was Lu Bu who transferred him from the cavalry unit. Each brigade has a full strength of 4,500 men, and the training of new-style recruits is officially underway.

Each company is also equipped with secretaries, and these people have made military merits when they were injured, and some of them can already go to grazing with military merits, but they heard that this newly established honorary unit is the trump card unit that Lu Bu intends to focus on cultivating, which is even more powerful than trapping the camp, and the opportunity to fight in the future is indispensable, and can he still win the battle with Lu Bu?

No one has too many military achievements, and there are no soldiers who don't want to be generals at all. Ten levels of military merit can be promoted to officer, which is also a great temptation and incentive.

Many of the officers of the 1st Rongshi Division came from the camp, and some were promoted from among the soldiers who had made meritorious contributions, and the new officers will all take part in the first phase of study and training at the military academy.

Then there is the trapping camp, the trapping camp has become a codename, Lu Bu's troops are trapping the camp, but it is still quite awkward as a number, Lu Bu has decided to trap the camp as the honorary title of a force, just like the swinging cavalry.

The official number is the First Infantry Division of the Bingzhou Army, the division commander is served by Xu Huang, Xu Huang performed prominently in the Battle of Liangcheng, and after a bloody battle, the sense of belonging to this army is even stronger, he and Fang Yue have already changed their words to call Lu Bu the main prince, so it is natural for him to replace Gao Shun and be promoted to division commander.

The First Infantry Division has three brigades, and the brigade commander of the first brigade is Xu Rong, Lu Bu appreciates him very much, thinking that he is steady in leading troops and not rigid, of course, Xu Rong has not been in contact with the new training method of trapping the camp before, and he will also participate in the first phase of recruit training and the first phase of the military academy.